Sir, - We are constantly told that our most precious asset as a nation is our people. How ironic, then, that in the 1980s every effort should have been made to keep money, not people, at home. This was literally true in the case of the money supposedly held in the Cayman Islands, which apparently never left Dublin at all. The paranoid fears of the Central Bank, politicians and senior officials about the dangers of a flight of capital were never matched by a concern with the much more dramatic flight of people, yet the two were linked. The shrinking of the Irish public sector, the narrowness of the tax base, the appalling state of public services, and the absence of investment capital for vibrant private-sector investment, combined with the excessive burdens imposed on PAYE workers, were also linked.
The real desolation of the 1980s was the lost generation, supposedly the young Europeans of a new, vibrant, forward-looking Ireland. They vanished into a new diaspora. From building sites in Boston, to workplaces in London and Paris, the best and brightest, but also the weakest and most ill-equipped, were betrayed by a gombeen aristocracy in pinstripe suits, who rule us still. The last straw was the famous phrase of a well-known politician: "After all, we can't all live on a small island." 1989, when 70,600 left the Republic, was one of the bleakest years this century. But the 1980s are not history, but yesterday.
The financial losses can be measured and some restitution sought - the least that can be hoped for is full repayment with penalties, and jail for the criminals, for that is what they are. But there can be no repayment for the pain and loss suffered by those who paid with their lives and futures for the comforts of Ireland's new elite - and, indirectly, for all of us who are still fortunate enough to live here. Their voices will not even be heard, because they have moved on. Other countries' gains; our loss.
Of course, some are welcome to return now to Celtic Tiger Ireland - as long as they are well-heeled and high-skilled. That is very fine. We should also remember the casualties of the 1980s (and of earlier periods such as the 1950s) who can hardly contemplate a return to the expensive and callous country we have seemingly become.
It is time for a change of policy. Let people, not money, be the ruling concern. - Yours, etc.,
Piaras Mac Einri, Director, Irish Centre for Migration Studies, National University of Ireland, Cork.